Sericin and fibroin nanoparticles—natural product for cancer therapy: a comprehensive review
Mehreen Elahi, Shaukat Ali, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir, Rabia Mushtaq, Muhammad Farooq Bhatti
Abstract
Silk, a natural compound of silkworm contains two proteins, sericin and fibroin. These proteins can be conjugated with other compounds to form silk-derived nanoparticles. The biomedical applications of silk-based nanoparticles for drug delivery and cancer treatment are arising as they are biocompatible, biodegradable, have enhanced permeability and retention effect and less toxicity. Nevertheless, not a single review of literature is present that could describe the anticancer potential of silk derived nanoparticles. In this review, we describe the (i) comprehensive note on fibroin and sericin based nanoparticles (ii) anticancer mechanistic accompanied by biomedical applications in diagnosis, imaging, and drug delivery.